Capturing groups regex with global flag in JavaScript -

i have use case, need allow processing arbitrary array of strings, arbitrary regex, created either regex literal, or through new regexp() constructor.

it works fine, until global g flag used capturing groups.

i read few answers on so, , proposed solution use regex.exec(string) in while loop, e.g. how access matched groups in javascript regular expression?, javascript regular expressions , sub-matches

i talked on irc, , advised against implementation together:

but there's regexes segfault engine, unless you're using spidermonkey.

so here corner case, try pasting fiddle or plunker, or console, breaks:

var regexstring = '([^-]*)';  var flags = 'ig';  var regex = new regexp(regexstring, flags);    var arr = ['some-property-image.png', 'another-prop-video.png', 'y-no-work.bmp'];  var result = [];    arr.foreach(function(item) {    var match;    var inter = [];    while (match = regex.exec(item)) {      inter.push(match[0]);    }  });    console.log(result);

i did tried on regex101.com https://regex101.com/r/xg0cl4/1 breaks if without quantifier, i.e. /([^-])/g https://regex101.com/r/yt7sq2/1

my question: (correct|safe) way process arbitrary regexes against arbitrary strings?

it's not working because when '-' reached, exec() fails match '-' character, match 0 characters (because of *), doesn't skip it, , gets stuck. if use -|([^-]*), skip '-' character. need check 'match.index' property see if you've reach end.

also, should adding match[1] not match[0] if intent save matched text.

this works:

var regexstring = '-|([^-]*)'; // or better yet: '([^-]+)' work var flags = 'ig'; var regex = new regexp(regexstring, flags);  var arr = ['some-property-image.png', 'another-prop-video.png', 'y-no-work.bmp']; var result = [];  arr.foreach(function(item) {   var match;   var inter = [];         while (match = regex.exec(item)) {     if (match.index >= item.length) break;     else if (match[1] !== void 0) inter.push(match[1]);   } });  console.log(result); 

but why not use 'match()' instead?

var regexstring = '[^-]+'; var flags = 'gi'; var regex = new regexp(regexstring, flags);  var arr = ['some-property-image.png', 'another-prop-video.png', 'y-no-work.bmp']; var result = [];  arr.foreach(function(item) {   var inter = item.match(regex); });  console.log(result);